Local News

House Democratic leaders will likely propose adding a 6 percent sales tax on Kentucky Lottery ticket sales and expanding available lottery games to fund future pension contributions.
Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, said the lottery sales tax would generate $49 million annually, and new lottery games could bring in between $60 million and $90 million over time.

The White House said Sunday that Kentucky could lose millions of dollars this year alone if Congress doesn't act by Friday.
That's when a series of automatic cuts — called sequestration — will take effect.
For example, Kentucky would lose $11.8 million for primary and secondary education, "putting around 160 teacher and aide jobs at risk," the White House said in a release.

George L. Rakes Jr., 41, of 334 W. Mulberry in Lebanon pled guilty in Marion Circuit Court recently to failure to comply with sex offender registration, first offense, first-degree unlawful imprisonment, fourth-degree assault, third or subsequent offense within five years, resisting arrest and third-degree terroristic threatening (two counts). He was sentenced to one year in prison to run consecutively with a Taylor County charge. Two counts of first-degree persistent felony offender were dismissed.

Farming is all that Bill Mattingly has ever wanted to do.
“I guess it’s all I knew,” he said. “I like it.”
And he’s good at what he does, so good that he was named the 2013 Outstanding Farmer by the Marion County Chamber of Commerce.
Unlike some other Outstanding award winners, Mattingly learned about his award prior to the chamber dinner.
“I was told the week before,“ his wife, Susan, said, “and I told him the same day because I wouldn’t have got him there otherwise.”

Less than six weeks into his first term as Commonwealth’s Attorney for Casey and Adair County, Gail L. Williams has asked for a special prosecutor in the upcoming trial of two men charged in the shooting death of Gleason Pyles in Dunnville last September.
Williams’ letter, dated Feb. 6, and addressed to Shawna Virgin Kincer, executive director in the Office of Special Prosecutions in Attorney General Jack Conway’s Office, cites his unwillingness to prosecute the case.

This morning at 6:09 a.m., Sheila and Dale Tingle released balloons into the sky to honor their daughter’s birthday. It’s the exact time their daughter was born 30 years ago, and it's something they’ve done every year since she went missing on July 17, 2010.
Kara was last seen on Beechfork Loop Road in Gravel Switch. She was driving a family member's car that was found two days later on the Bluegrass Parkway.

“Imani” is Swahili for “faith,” and it’s the perfect name for Imani Biggers.
It’s been said that faith doesn’t have or know an age, and that’s certainly true with Imani.
When asked what she thinks makes her special, the soft-spoken, bright-eyed 9-year-old sits quietly for a few moments, pondering her answer. Her eyes well up with tears as she softly replies.
“I have God in my heart,” she said. “He watches over me.”

The headline proclaimed, “Father Vincent Smith’s First Mass a Notable Occasion.”
Why exactly was this Mass, celebrated June 10, 1934, worthy of headlines? It was the first time an African-American born in Kentucky had celebrated Mass as a Catholic priest.
The newspaper wrote that more than 2,000 black Catholics — including Smith’s parents, who were both in their 80s — attended the Mass along with 30 priests from the diocese of Louisville and surrounding dioceses.